Changed Because of a Storm Drain

Contributor's Note: Two years ago and as part of the Kiwanis club, I volunteered to help with the Coastal Cleanup here in Dixon.  The following column was one I wrote immediately afterwards. I want to encourage other people to come out for this year’s event on Saturday, September 17, 9 a.m. to noon at the Valley Glen Pond.

Directions: Heading toward , make a right turn off Highway 113 onto Parkway Boulevard and drive to the street’s end. It is behind the Valley Glen subdivision. For more information, call Martha Jensen, Department of Public Works for City of Dixon (707) 678-7051, ext. 105

About two months ago, while getting into my car in a large parking lot, I threw out a small water bottle plastic cap. I felt guilty even before I did it. Images of seagulls choking entered my mind. Most of us agree littering is un-American and irresponsible.

But I wanted it out of my clean car and I couldn’t find a trash nor had I replaced the little trash bag that normally is kept in my car. So, I tossed it with complete guilt. And, I sure wished I hadn’t. Here is why. This past Saturday morning, I joined about 40 or 50 volunteers (men, women, and children) for the California Coastal Cleanup at Dixon’s Valley Glen Pond.

If each of our 17,000 population tossed just one of those lids — like I did — just one time over the course of the last 365 days, that would equal the number of little caps I saw there today. I must have picked up a zillion of them and I’ve got the aching back to prove it.

All it takes is one of those volunteer clean ups and I guarantee you will never look at trash the same way again. It will be hard for me to ever use a straw again. They don’t break down and they were all over the place. There were plastic water bottles, plastic bags, tires, tons of candy wrappers, and dead fish.

When we first began walking toward the pond, there were geese flying overhead, some rolling hills, cattails and shrubbery before the water. It looked peaceful and serene — a really natural setting like you’d see on the front of a sympathy card. But then, as you got closer, the first thing that changed was the air. A stench had rolled in. Then you noticed the ground seemed to get brittle with lots and lots of little pieces of garbage — where the sun breaks down a lot of things to the point it breaks into little pieces.

As we got closer to the pond’s edge and I could see beyond the shrubs, that was when you could see the source of the rotting smell. Bloated, dead fish floating among plastic bottles, cups, and debris of every shape and size. It was awful.

Dixon has seven of these ponds. All neighborhood storm drains empty into one of them depending on their neighborhood. You’ve seen the grates over the top so you know there is neither fine mesh screen nor even cyclone fencing grates to stop children’s toys from falling in them. Leaves rush down them in the rains and plenty of times there is garbage from the street gutters washed into them.

The ponds are located on the outskirts of town and city employees work to clean up as much as they can but according to City of Dixon employee and coordinator of the volunteer effort, Martha Jensen, they can never get it all. We could see why when we approached the pond. It was overwhelming and many of us thought we’d never make any headway.

We would try, though, because we knew when the ponds are full of water, the water is released into the Delta then eventually leads to the oceans. Delta water is used for our water. None of us wanted to see our natural resources polluted--and it was awful to see those dead fish and so much gunk in the water. We left changed people, I’m sure.

We also left a very clean pond. We made an amazing difference and despite that we were dirty, smelly, and hot, we felt a great sense of accomplishment.